Ciona Knock Out

A database for knockout Ciona genes by genome editing technologies

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What's new!

May, 2017

The functions of Hox1 in the thyroid-homologous organ (endostyle) were characterized in Ciona.
In this report, TALENs for famous developmentally relevant genes like Otx, Hox1, RAR and Raldh2 were created.
These TALENs are available from NBRP.
Click here for details.

March, 2017

A novel technique to establish Ciona mutant lines has been established.
This technique utilizes TALEN-based genome editing and germ cell regeneration.
In this report, new vector series that can monitor TALEN expression with the aid of mCherry fluorescence were created,
and these vectors are now available from NBRP.
Click here for details.

TALENs were used to mutate the critical element for the epidermis specific
expression of Ci-CesA (Sasakura et al (2016) Proc Biol Sci 283, pii: 20161712).
The TALENs were now included in our database.

Background

Knockout can be considered the ultimate technique to address gene functions.
The technique was limited to only a few model animals;
however, recent applications of engineered nucleases has enabled us to carry out knockout in various organisms.
We recently reported knockout of Ciona genes with TALE nucleases (TALENs).
When TALENs are ubiquitously expressed by means of microinjection of RNA or electroporation of expression vectors with
EF1 promoter, the nucleases introduce mutations at their target loci with high frequencies.
When TALENs are expressed in tissue-specific manner with a tissue-specific cis element,
we can knock out the target genes in the conditional manner and identify where the genes are required.
Likewise, successful knockout of Ciona genes with CRISPR/Cas9 has also been reported.
This database provides the basic datasets that may be useful for sharing TALEN and CRISPR/Cas9 vectors
among ascidian community in order to facilitate the use of these tools for your researches.

Genome Editing with TALE nuclease (TALEN)

TALEN utilizes TAL effector from plant pathogens.

The DNA-binding domain of TAL effector is composed by repeats of four modules each of which recognizes a specific nucleotide.